


There is just something about him

by IcannotbelieveIamhere



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/M, Fictober 2019, fictober19
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-14 21:40:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21022682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IcannotbelieveIamhere/pseuds/IcannotbelieveIamhere
Summary: Felicity Smoak reflects on her experiences at Merlyn Global after she and Oliver have a "platonic" encounter in the elevator shaft.





	There is just something about him

**Author's Note:**

> Fictober has a way of getting me to write fic or ficlets which I've been wanting to write for ages. According to my notes, I came up with the idea of rewriting The Undertaking from the end of Season 1 in February 2018. So far I've posted a few stories in my series, "What would we do without Walter" but there are many more to come. This is a ficlet which will eventually form part of the longer story, "For the love of Walter". It works as a standalone piece but some of the character reactions are based on discussions Oliver and Felicity have in "Impressive Truly". I'm hoping to have the full story posted soon.

Felicity glanced at the Big Belly Burger Uniform on the floor of the basement bathroom at Verdant, which she had discarded a few minutes earlier, and wondered why on earth she had agreed to wear it. She tested whether the water in the shower was the right temperature, then stepped under the wonderfully hot water. Each drop of water helped her forget her fears from when she had been stuck in the server room at Merlyn Global, hoping the download to her tablet would be finished before she was caught by the security guards.

Why did she always rush into these dangerous missions? Surely she should have learned her lesson after being captured by the Dodger and pulled aside and threatened in the illegal casino. When she said to Oliver that she needed to plug her tablet directly into the Merlyn Global mainframe, she had no idea he would take her seriously and ask her to do exactly that.

These were desperate times, however. The team needed to do whatever it took to stop The Undertaking.

Oliver always had a way of making the impossible, possible. She trusted him. He helped her overcome fears she never even knew she had, like heights. Felicity started shaking as she remembered being in the elevator shaft with Oliver. No, she didn’t want to dwell on those few seconds.

She needed to take her mind off things during her shower while she waited for her computers to finish processing the data they had copied from the Merlyn Global server.

Maybe a song would help calm her nerves. She started singing out loud, not caring who else in the basement could hear her.

Summer loving had me a blast  
Summer loving happened so fast  
Met a boy crazy for me  
Met a girl cute as can be  
Summer days drifting away to oh oh the summer nights

No no no no no. That was the wrong song. She didn’t want to sing about love affairs. That would only bring her mind back to how close she and Oliver were in the elevator shaft. It was silly anyway, and she didn’t even know if she had sang the right words. Had she twisted the lyrics around? If she and Oliver were singing together, would she be the one singing about a sweet love affair or would she be boasting about a raunchy sexual encounter. No no no no no, Oliver was still in her thoughts. Not good. What was he to her? What did she mean to him?

Was she like one of those women who followed him around, trying to catch his eye, hoping he’d still be the spoilt brat he was before he got stranded on the island? She admired his body. How could she not admire his amazing physique while he worked out shirtless around her? Was she attracted to him in any other way? She couldn’t figure him out. Some people would think he was showing off, hoping to impress her. She figured he’d been shirtless on the island when he exercised. It probably felt natural to him to continue that way, now that he was home.

Felicity washed her hair, hoping that the smell of the apple scented shampoo would let her forget about how Oliver made her feel, but it didn’t. All she could think about was how Oliver smelled as she was pressed up against him in the elevator shaft. She was sure she sensed the aroma of pine trees.

“Felicity……Hold on to me tight.”

“I imagined you saying that under different circumstances. Very platonic…..circumstances.”

Felicity wondered whether she would ever learn not to say the first thing which jumped into her mind. There was nothing platonic about how she had imagined Oliver holding her. In what platonic circumstances would he ever say hold on to me tight. Did riding on the back of his motorcycle count? She’d have to hold onto him tight there, if he ever let her on the back of his bike. All the other scenarios involved him hugging her after a work out, taking her out to dinner and all the things she wanted him to do after dinner. She knew she was probably foolish to think like this about him, but his interest in her confused him and she didn’t know how to feel.

Felicity wanted to know how Oliver felt about her. She couldn’t figure out whether she was just physically attracted to him or whether there was more. But how could there be any more if he wasn’t attracted to her? Why was he so interested in her? What possessed him, in the early days, to keep asking for help, even though he probably knew she had seen through his lies? She knew that Oliver trusted her, but she wanted to know more.

When Oliver asked her to hold onto him tight he was looking upwards. When she spoke, he looked directly into her eyes. He looked surprised and amused but didn’t respond to her babble. What on earth was he thinking? His eyes had been so close to her, she couldn’t help but gaze into them. They were so beautiful but she was so scared at that point she didn’t have a chance to really enjoy them. Was he wondering what circumstances she had imagined him holding her tight?

Felicity covered her body with her coconut scented body wash, hoping the aroma would allow her to forget about Oliver, but all she ended up doing was wondering whether there were coconut trees on Lian Yu.

Felicity was desperate to clear her mind so she’d be ready for the hours of searching, coding and decryption ahead of her. She started solving quadratic equations in her head and remembered how winning math competitions made her feel.

Hours later, Felicity was at her computer station in the basement, searching though the data she had decrypted so far.

She saw Oliver approaching her.

“Have you located the seismic device?” Oliver asked her.

“Not yet. There’s at least a terabyte of data to go through. I won’t be able to decipher it all for hours,” Felicity replied.

Oliver looked down at her.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her softly.

“Much better now that I’ve gotten out of that Big Belly Burger get-up. I was shaky before I had my shower but the hot water calmed me down,” Felicity replied.

“You were brave out there. Thanks for keeping it together.” Oliver said proudly.

“If Diggle hadn’t found me when he did, I think I would have had a panic attack right there and then. I’ve got no idea what I would’ve said if they’d taken me to Malcolm Merlyn. He would’ve seen through any story I made up.”

“We all made it out safely,” Oliver said, “That’s the most important thing.”

“Thanks Oliver.” Felicity said calmly.

Oliver walked away, then stopped, and turned back to Felicity. He pulled his copy of The List out of his pocket.

“My father asked me to right his wrongs. I thought he wanted me to cross names of The List. I realise now, he wanted me to stop The Undertaking. We’re so close. But what happens next?”

“I don’t know,” Felicity said, “Perhaps we’ll all get some sleep.”

“Maybe I can have my life back,” Oliver pondered.

Oliver looked directly into Felicity’s eyes for a moment then stared upwards.

“Why don’t you take a walk on one of the few days it isn’t raining in Starling City. I’ll call you when I find something.”

“Good idea. Maybe I can figure things out,” Oliver replied.

Felicity watched Oliver walk towards the stairs. Maybe she could figure things out as well, while he was away. What would she do if Oliver decided to hang up the hood? Would things be better or worse between them? What was it about Oliver that she couldn’t get off her mind?

“There is just something about him,” Felicty thought as she gazed at Oliver walking up the stairs.

Oliver stopped walking but didn’t turn around. Had she said that out loud? After a few moments he continued up the stairs. Felicity went back to work on her searches and started reciting trigonometric equations in her head, trying not to think about what Oliver was going to do.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering what happens next, read "I've waited so long for this", one of my entries in Fictober 2018. This explores Oliver's feelings after the Merlyn Global encounter and a dilemma which my version of Oliver faces.
> 
> Please let me know what you think of the story and let me know if you have questions about every element of the story. The final version will have a few more details about the Merlyn Global adventure but they weren't needed for this fic to make sense.
> 
> This fic was also inspired by a fun musical behind the scenes video shot during the filming of the Merlyn Global foyer scene.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX3RuO6Ic7A


End file.
